Woman gets prison in crash deaths of 3 grandkids

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania woman was ordered Wednesday to spend at least three years in prison for a high-speed crash that killed her three young grandchildren.

Laurie Hatfield, 50, had asked for house arrest after pleading no contest to vehicular homicide in the crash that happened after state police say the Duncannon woman sped away from another collision at about 100 mph.

“I never, ever wanted this to happen and I wish to God it was me,” Hatfield said, according to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg (http://bit.ly/XcesAO).

Investigators said 5-year-old Luke Stump Jr. and 2-year-old twins Megyn and Troy Stump were not properly restrained when Hatfield’s station wagon plunged down an embankment near Harrisburg in April 2010.

The children’s father begged the judge not to send his mother to prison.

The newspaper reported that a raucous outcry from Hatfield’s family led deputies to clear them from the courtroom when Judge Bernard Coates Jr. announced the sentence. Some shouted and cursed, with their objections in the hallway audible inside the courtroom.

The prosecutor told the newspaper that three of them were charged with disorderly conduct.

The judge said his sentence was fashioned with the children in mind.

“I shudder to imagine the horrific last minutes of their lives,” Coates said.